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Full moons were always a fun time on the Thousand Sunny. It came with having two crew members who were werewolves, and a few others who drew power from the moon as well. When Sanji had first joined the crew, it took some creativity to make it so he would be able to travel on their first ship. Being a pirate was a weird profession for a vampire like him, but he made it work. Sanji had been battling the sun and its effects for ages. He had come up with all kinds of remedies to protect himself during the daylight hours, and the ocean was beautiful at night. He enjoyed having the quiet to himself.
Sanji's first full moon aboard their original ship, the Going Merry, had been a doozy. The sun had set and he quickly learned that he had unknowingly set sail with not one, but two werewolves. His captain and the first mate, as it would turn out, were both of the canine variety, and while Sanji had long gotten over his fear of werewolves (something instilled in him as a child), it had made him nervous nonetheless. Not all werewolves tolerated vampires well and vice versa, an age-old tale spun by humans that did actually have some merit.
Thankfully, the Straw Hats were an atypical bunch. Captain Luffy in his wolf form was basically a puppy and First Mate Zoro was just about the laziest werewolf Sanji had ever set his eyes on. He spent most of his time sleeping or training in his human form, and slept away his full moons on the deck of the ship while Luffy ran circles around him.
It was on one such full moon that Sanji was quietly enjoying a cigarette in the crows nest, watching Zoro and Luffy on the deck below. Zoro was twice Luffy's size in his wolf form, his fur thick and silver with streaks of darker gray throughout. He was bipedal and muscular with pointed ears, the kind of werewolf Sanji knew very well, and a direct contrast to Luffy.
Luffy's fur was a warm chocolate brown and he had long gangly limbs, the fur on his legs black from his knee joints down to his paws, and unlike Zoro, he was quadrupedal. He also did something weird that Zoro didn't: he could bark. The first time he had, Sanji had nearly jumped out of his skin. Luffy was the strangest werewolf Sanji had ever seen, that was for sure. Sometimes Sanji wasn't even sure he was a werewolf, but he hadn't been able to prove it yet.
Sanji huffed a laugh as Luffy rolled over on his back, mouth open as he tried to play-bite at Zoro's face as he lounged on the ground, grumbling at him as he did. The older werewolf stared down at him with his one good eye, looking unimpressed, before whumping a massive paw down on top of Luffy's head, pinning him to the deck with a yelp. Luffy flailed for a moment before he and Zoro both paused, ears pricking at something Sanji couldn't hear. Luffy struggled out from under Zoro's paw and ran to the railing of the ship, barking excitedly. Sighing, Sanji snuffed his cigarette, jumping down from the crows nest to alight gently on the railing next to him.
"Quiet down Luffy, or you'll wake the whole ship."
Glancing over the side, Sanji saw what had made Luffy so excited. The water a few hundred feet from the Sunny had taken on a strange hue, and after a few more moments of waiting, the yellow bow of a submarine emerged from the depths. The waves created by the surfacing craft rocked the Sunny slightly, and once it had settled, a tall figure appeared from within.
Fellow pirate captain Trafalgar Law often showed up on full moons to spend time with Luffy. It was no secret why. Everyone could see what was happening right in front of their faces, even if Law regularly denied it and Luffy didn't seem to care if anyone knew. Luffy was shaking from his excitement, the werewolf whining and pawing at the railing as the submarine slowly came up alongside the ship.
"Luffy! If you scratch the railing, Franky will turn you into a rug on the next full moon," Sanji chastised, giving his captain a few hard pats on his shoulder to calm him. Once the sub was close enough, Law jumped up, clearing the Sunny's railing easily and landing behind Luffy and Sanji. The werewolf was immediately on him, knocking him to the ground to lap happily at his face.
"It's good to see you too, Luffy-ya," Law said, carefully pushing the other back so he could sit up. His golden eyes landed on Sanji and flashed yellow, making Sanji's blue eyes flash white in response.
"Black leg-ya," Law said by way of greeting. Sanji inclined his head at the other vampire.
"Law, always a pleasure," he said airily. He and Law had a respectful relationship. Their upbringings were different, with Sanji being born a vampire and Law being turned into one later in his life, but the fact that they were both the only vampires on their respective crews gave them something in common with each other.
Luffy had placed his head in Law's lap and was groaning contentedly as the other scrubbed his hands through the mohawk-like hair between his shoulders. Zoro, who had been watching from his spot on the deck, pushed himself to his feet, loping over to where Sanji was leaning against the railing. He laid back down on his side, his head cushioned against his large paw as he yawned, all his large teeth on display. Sanji reached over and ran a hand through the fur on his head and watched as Zoro's eye closed, a happy noise rumbling through his chest.
Sanji had been banished from his coven for the crime of refusing to drink human blood. His father (in blood only) called him a failure and ordered him never to return home or speak of his family again. Sanji had successfully blended in with humans for years, and was content with living among them, until a ragtag pack of creatures had wandered into his restaurant, easily picking him out as one of their kind.
An exiled vampire turned pirate was already hilarious enough, but imagining the look on his father's face if he ever found out that Sanji was in love with a werewolf took the cake. He gave the object of his affection's head another pet and received a gentle bump of a snout against his leg in response.
He and Zoro hadn't always gotten along. They were always bickering and fighting, even before Sanji knew what Zoro really was, and after he had found out, it immediately made more sense why Sanji had always felt unnerved with Zoro around, and why he always lashed out at him for everything he did. Coming to terms with their feelings for one another had been a very slow, very painful process for both of them, as every cell in their bodies screamed at them to run in the opposite direction. Very cliche in Sanji's opinion, but in the end, they weren't able to fight it. It was comical how the crew was almost more relieved than they were when they finally came together.
Sanji lit a new cigarette and sat down in front of Zoro, leaning back against his broad chest and enjoying the feeling of soft fur.
"Do those even do anything for you?" Law asked from across the space, idly petting Luffy as the wolf snoozed at his side. Sanji blew out a puff of smoke and shrugged.
"Not really. The act of doing it is soothing to me, but I don't get any of the nicotine effects humans do, since I don't have blood to circulate it, so I suppose it's mostly a habit at this point. The humans who took me in after I left my coven often smoked, and I like the smell, so it reminds me of them."
Law hummed in response, switching to scratching Luffy's chest when he rolled over.
"I miss being able to enjoy alcohol," Law said in a rare instance of honesty. "As you said, no blood, so it doesn't have an effect on me anymore."
Sanji took another drag of his cigarette, not sure how to respond. He liked the taste of wine but it didn't do anything for him. Zoro loved his sake, and Sanji loved how affectionate he was when he got drunk, but he didn't understand the feeling himself. Almost like he could hear Sanji's thoughts, Law chuckled.
"I guess you wouldn't know what being drunk is like, being a pureborn."
Sanji's eyes flashed white again, and Law met his gaze steadily.
"As a matter of fact, no, I never got to experience being human," Sanji grumbled. Law smirked dryly at him.
"Don't sound so jealous, Black Leg-ya. Be grateful you don't have memories of being human to make you miss things," the Captain responded. Sanji glared at him, Law's tone making his skin itch.
Sensing the shift in mood, Zoro stirred, a growl bubbling in his throat. He was quickly pacified by Sanji reaching back and scratching his throat, settling back into his lounging with a grumble. Hearing Zoro growl had woken Luffy from his dozing as well, and he lifted his head and cocked it questioningly, looking between Sanji and Law. Law gave the smaller wolf a few hard pats on his chest.
"Nothing to worry about, Luffy-ya," Law said soothingly. He turned back to Sanji.
"Sorry, I didn't mean that the way it came out," he admitted. "I've never really had a filter."
"You act like this is new information," Sanji drawled, putting his cigarette out on his heel. "It's just a touchy subject for me, that's all. You don't see a lot of pureborns like me out here. Most of them prefer to stay protected inside the walls of a coven fortress, I don't have to tell you that, but when you're the family fuck up and refuse to drink human blood, their first response to to kick you out of the family entirely."
Law looked a little surprised, and Sanji realized that he had never told the other captain his secret.
"What sustains you if not human blood?" Law asked curiously, and Sanji could see the gears turning in his head. Sanji knew Law's background too, how he had been taken in by a family of pureborns after his human family had been murdered, and how one of the elders had sacrificed his life for Law's and also turned him as a final gift. The Straw Hat pirates and Law had actually fought together to take down the pureborn vampire who had killed Law's beloved sire. They weren't able to kill him, but locking him in a lead coffin and throwing him into the ocean had been a cruel enough punishment to satisfy Law in the end.
Debating on sharing too much with Law, Sanji shrugged.
"We have a lot of carnivores on this ship. Slaughtering the animals we catch and draining them of blood is part of the cook's job."
His vague answer was enough to keep Law from asking any more questions. Good. Sanji wasn't ready to tell anyone outside of the crew about the filtration system Franky had created, which allowed the crew to donate blood for him to drink while filtering out any magical traits they had. Sanji still refused to drink blood directly from a human, but traveling on one of the world's biggest oceans like they currently were, they sometimes went a while between food runs, and while most of the crew could survive off of whatever non-meat options they had while they traveled to a new island, without blood, Sanji got weak and lethargic. Trying times required creative solutions, but it still didn't stop his guilt about consuming his crew's lifeblood.
He also wasn't going to tell Law that he preferred Zoro's blood the most, as it had a smoky taste to it that the others blood did not. He had never tried drinking it directly from the source, fearing what pure unfiltered werewolf blood would do to him, but he couldn't say he had never thought about it in moments of intense passion when he could hear Zoro's strong heart pumping away…
Sanji was broken from his thoughts by Luffy giving a small bark, irritated that Law had stopped patting him.
"My arm is getting tired," Law said flatly. Luffy gave another small bark in protest, bumping Law in the face with his snout. Sanji's eyebrow shot up in surprise when Law grabbed the offending snout and kissed it, making all of Luffy's fur fluff up in response.
"You'll be fine, now hush and find something else to do," Law said not unkindly. "I'm not leaving until the sun starts to rise anyways."
With what could only be described as puppy dog eyes, Luffy stood up and shook out his fur, stretching before trotting over to Sanji and Zoro. Knowing what was likely coming next, Sanji got up, disturbing Zoro's nap just before Luffy pounced on him. Zoro snarled and batted at him, but Luffy dodged his swipe easily, nipping at his long ears and clambering up onto his back. The larger werewolf stood up, scruffing Luffy and throwing him across the deck. Luffy landed on his back with a yelp but sprung back onto his feet easily, dropping down low and wagging his tail. Zoro remained standing upright but hunched down slightly, his canine mouth turning up slightly at the corners. Luffy rushed him again and they tussled on the deck, the play-fighting similar to how they would spar as humans. Sanji sighed. So much for not waking the others… it would be impossible to sleep through all this noise.
Sanji glanced down at Law and saw the small smile on his face as he watched Zoro and Luffy, so Sanji bumped Law's shoulder with his knee.
"If you're serious about him, just understand that if you ever hurt him, I'll personally hunt you down and feed you to Zoro piece by piece," Sanji said casually. Law chuckled and put his chin in his hand.
"I don't doubt that in the slightest, but you have nothing to worry about. I would sooner walk into the sunlight unprotected than ever hurt him."
"Good."
The two vampires quietly continued to watch their werewolves play under the full moon's light, some new understanding between them.